Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “The Case for Reparations” Echoes in a Pa. City

By Jake Blumgart (Next City) – In The Atlantic’s recent article, “The Case for Reparations,” Ta-Nehisi Coates takes readers to Chicago to tell the story of the systemic robbery and segregation of black Americans throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, long after slavery and far outside Jim Crow South. Coates’ story echoes in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, just to the west of Philadelphia and its only city, Chester.

Just 20 miles down the river from its larger urban neighbor, Chester’s population is almost 75 percent African-American, and the poverty rate is almost 32 percent. The unemployment rate is over 17 percent (not counting the great many who have dropped out of the labor force entirely). Most of the jobs left in city limits are not held by city residents, including those in the Harrah’s casino (opened in 2007) and the PPL Park soccer stadium (opened in 2010). Chester’s population is trapped, abandoned by the political and economic systems.